Kernovich Abroad: Hamleys Toys

We survived the Michigan basketball loss and the exhaustion that followed that work day for both of us. Tyler continues to really enjoy being with Alison. He even waves his Dad away when she comes over. On Tuesday when we left he was jumping up and down, excited to see Alison and just gave us a little wave like, "yea, yea, yea see ya later... now let's play Alison!" Tyler's speech is starting to develop a bit. His favorite words are dada, banana (pronounced nanana), and ball (pronounced ba). JJ is gone this week near Birmingham and he has been calling in by Facetime to chat in the morning and before bed with Tyler. Now when the Facetime rings, he runs toward the ipad saying "dadada dadada."

We've been enjoying the nice weather earlier in the week, but today was a bit rainy. I searched online to look for something new to do on a rainy day and since it's between school terms so most activities are on break like music classes, etc. I found a big, apparently famous toy store called Hamley Toys that I had never heard of. It sounded like the FAO Schwartz of London. It was near Oxford Street so that meant I could maybe do a little shopping of my own on the way too so we headed that way. Hamleys was like heaven for Tyler. When we walked in we were surrounded by some of his favorite things - bubbles and balloons! I couldn't get him out of the entrance and the workers were having fun blowing their bubble guns at him. We only made it through one level and then it was time to head back for lunch and nap. There were a couple things to be concerned about on the way home:
1) Hustle so that Tyler gets home in time for nap - he was already starting to get agitated
2) Protect the Hamleys balloon - Tyler kept looking up at it, making sure that it was still there
I'm sure I looked like a mad woman half running down the street, trying not to hit people in the face with the balloon and trying to dodge people and their cigarettes (didn't want to have any hot ash pop the balloon)!

We made it home and I quickly realized that Tyler didn't really understand helium. We had another balloon in the house before but it was just filled with air and he could throw it around. Now with this balloon he just kept crying because the balloon kept going back up to the ceiling and out of his reach. Very frustrating for him!

It's finally digging weather!

One of my new favorite stores - Uniqlo. I guess there are stores in NYC and San Fran too but I had never shopped there. They had a couple guest designers promoted - Lulu Guinness and Celia Birtwell that were pretty reasonably priced so I had to pick up a couple shirts on the way to the toy store :)

Big T outside the Oxford Circus station. This station is literally a circus so I had to snap the picture quick. As I look at this I think I have also captured typical London style in the people behind Tyler. I have to be honest - it's atrocious!